AHMEDABAD, India — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday praised a series of recent moves by US President Donald Trump and expressed confidence that the US would relocate its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem within a year.
“My confident assessment is that it will move much faster than people think, within a year from today,” he told Israeli reporters on a flight from New Delhi to Gujarat during a state visit to India.
Last month, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that relocating the embassy to Jerusalem would likely take at least three years, and quite possibly longer. “It’s not going to be anything that happens right away,” he said in a speech at the State Department reported by The New York Times. “Probably no earlier than three years out, and that’s pretty ambitious.”
Trump promised to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in a December 6 speech at the White House in which he also formally recognized the city as Israel’s capital.
Trump’s controversial decision sparked protests in some countries and was rejected in a non-binding UN General Assembly resolution. The recognition was welcomed in Israel, and Guatemala has since announced it will follow the US in moving its embassy to the city. Arab foreign ministers are set to meet on February 1 in Cairo to discuss steps against Trump’s recognition, the Arab League said earlier this month.
Netanyahu also lauded the Trump administration as the first to “challenge” the UN aid agency to the Palestinians. A day earlier, the US had announced it would withhold $65 million of a $120 million contribution to UNRWA this month. READ MORE
